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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28793385">Inherit the Story</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/hen_of_letters/pseuds/hen_of_letters'>hen_of_letters</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Supernatural</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst with a Happy Ending, Castiel Loves Dean Winchester, Castiel/Dean Winchester First Kiss, Dean Winchester Loves Castiel, Episode Fix-It: s15e19 Inherit the Earth, F/M, Fix-It, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Happy Ending, Hopeful Ending, Love Confessions, M/M, s15e20 Carry On does not exist</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 08:41:04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,175</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28793385</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/hen_of_letters/pseuds/hen_of_letters</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"Jack, wait." </p>
<p>Dean's voice is quiet. "Is everyone back? Charlie? Stevie?" Dean's eyes briefly turn to his left, where Sam stands. "Eileen?"</p>
<p>"Yes, Dean." Jack smiles serenely.</p>
<p>"What about Cas?"</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Castiel/Dean Winchester, Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>117</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Inherit the Story</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is my very first attempt at fanfiction - just a very quick little fix-it - born of my absolute fury at 15x20.</p>
<p>It's an alternate ending to 15x19, beginning just as Jack brings back everyone zapped away by Chuck. </p>
<p>This is the 'Buffy' ending that I wanted from the show: Chuck, the author, defeated, and the characters and their stories gifted into our hands.  I've left the question of whether Cas comes back as human or angel entirely up to you - there are things I love about both options.</p>
<p>I'd just like to thank all the amazing authors out there who have soothed my soul with their fix-its and who have inspired me to try my hand at writing my own.  Thank you.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sam and Dean hold their breath as slowly the background bustle of humanity replaces the stone dead silence left by Chuck.</p>
<p>Dean looks around in awe. "You did it, Jack!"</p>
<p>"Now there's something else I need to do."  </p>
<p>Jack holds out his hand, which starts to glow. Swirls of strangely luminescent blackness unfurl from his fingers, until Amara stands before him with her hand intertwined with his.</p>
<p>"Nice work, kid." Amara smiles before drawing him into a hug. "See you soon." She nods at Sam and Dean before vanishing.</p>
<p>"Are you ... the new God?" Sam asks.</p>
<p>"I'm holding his power, for now. He made all this, but he wanted to be a writer, not a father. I learned from my mother, and from Cas, and from you, that all he really needed to do was love his creation.  </p>
<p>"He couldn't do that, though, so instead he kept writing and rewriting. I need to fix the things he twisted. Amara's going to help me put things right. Then I'll let go of the Light - let it be in the world."</p>
<p>He smiles and raises a hand to wave. "I'll see you soon."</p>
<p>"Jack, wait." Dean's voice is quiet. "Is everyone back? Charlie? Stevie?" Dean's eyes briefly turn to his left, where Sam stands. "Eileen?"</p>
<p>"Yes, Dean." Jack smiles serenely.</p>
<p>"What about Cas?" Dean's voice is even more tentative, now. Softer.</p>
<p>Jack's smile fades and he opens his mouth to speak, but Dean cuts him off.</p>
<p>"Please, Jack." He pauses, swallows, then continues with eyes downcast. "When Cas summoned the Empty, he told me..." Dean looks up, makes eye contact with Jack. "He told me that he loved me."</p>
<p>"I swear, Jack, I didn't know. I couldn't imagine it. Hell, I couldn't imagine anyone ... let alone ..." Dean blinks away tears, swallows again. "I could never imagine he felt the same way."</p>
<p>"Jack, please. I tried to stop him. But the Empty just took him. I didn't even say it back before he was gone. And now I can't stop thinking about all the times I could have told him, all the years I spent pushing down those feelings, biting back those words. And now he'll never know. He saved me, and he thought ... He thought I didn't ... and now he's gone. Please. I just need to tell him. I need him to know."</p>
<p>Dean becomes aware that Sam has moved closer, and has put an arm around him. Dean leans in to Sam's side and wipes the tears from his face.</p>
<p>"I just need him to know."</p>
<p>He raises his eyes to Jack again, who is not making eye contact, but rather looking slightly to Dean's right. He feels Sam shift, squeeze his shoulder, then move away. He looks quizzically between Sam and Jack, until he follows the line of Jack's sight, turning to look over his shoulder.</p>
<p>"Hello, Dean."</p>
<p>The air is punched out of Dean's lungs when he turns around. "Cas?"</p>
<p>Only a few paces separate them. Caught in that same inescapable gravity that has always drawn them together, they step forward and clap their arms around each other.</p>
<p>Dean realises that he is not only crying, but sobbing in a way that he's not sure he's ever done in front of anyone else before. He doesn't care. Cas is solid and warm and alive and in Dean's arms.</p>
<p>Dean turns his face in towards Cas' neck, and hears a sudden exhale as Cas does the same. Dean has a fistful of Cas' trenchcoat and Cas is clinging on to Dean for dear life. They hold on and shiver and sob and somehow hold each other up.</p>
<p>"Thank you, Jack," Cas says, but Dean can only nod into Cas' shoulder. He should say more, he knows. He can't. He steadies himself, lifts out of the hug a little so he can turn and nod at Jack. Cas keeps his arms wrapped around Dean's waist.</p>
<p>Looking back over at Sam, Dean sees that Eileen is beside him. Dean lets out another relieved lungful of air, before turning back to Cas.</p>
<p>Cas' face is as tear-streaked as his own, his eyes red-rimmed and so, so blue.</p>
<p>"Cas, I ..."</p>
<p>"It's okay, Dean." Cas' voice is a fractured, trembling, still beautiful, thing. "You don't have to say anything. I heard you."</p>
<p>"No, Cas. I need to say it. And I'm going to say it every day for the rest of my goddamn life." He hesitates, shocked a little by his own words. He doesn't move away, but his centre of gravity shifts back. "I mean, if that's okay ... If you want ..." he trails off.</p>
<p>"Dean. Of course that's what I want. I just never thought ..."</p>
<p>"Heh. Me neither." Dean leans in to Cas' embrace again. "I guess we really are a couple of dumbasses."</p>
<p>Cas huffs a laugh, looks down, lifts the corner of his mouth into a wry smile and then looks back up into Dean's eyes.</p>
<p>"I love you, Cas." The words are softly said, almost into the other man's mouth.</p>
<p>"I love you, Dean."</p>
<p>Dean's right hand has moved up to cup Cas' face, his thumb tenderly wiping away tears.</p>
<p>"Cas, there's so much I need to say to you. But right now ... Right now I just ..."</p>
<p>Dean is staring hopelessly into Cas' eyes as he leans in closer, and then Cas is lifting his chin and their lips are meeting and everything in the world is beautiful and perfect.  </p>
<p>Dean's eyes fall closed; he feels Cas' arms surrounding him, pulling him impossibly closer. Dean releases the handful of trenchcoat he's clutching to splay his left hand flat between Cas' shoulder blades. Cas moves his right hand around Dean's waist and up Dean's chest; he lingers over Dean's heart, then continues up his neck until his fingers find the short hairs at the back of his head and his thumb rubs the stubble of Dean's jaw.</p>
<p>The kiss only ends when it's interrupted, inevitably, by the sound of a moose clearing its throat. Dean should glare at his brother, but he can't break away from Cas' eyes, so blue and wide and earnest. </p>
<p>Dean continues to hold Cas' face; Cas' hand moves back down Dean's neck before gripping his right shoulder. Dean's laugh is half bark and half breath; they can't stop smiling and the tears won't stop falling. Cas is holding on as if he may never let go. Dean really doesn't want him to. </p>
<p>Eileen, Sam and Jack are smiling too, and their eyes are full of tears and love. They have drawn closer, so Dean and Cas part for long enough to exchange hugs with their family, before pulling them all in for a group hug.</p>
<p>They end up standing in a row, Eileen, Sam, Jack, Dean and Castiel, facing the road ahead with their arms around each other's shoulders.</p>
<p>"What do we do now?" Dean ventures.</p>
<p>Cas looks at Dean with a smile that begins as wry, then shifts into astonished joy. "I guess we just make it up as we go."</p>
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